Christmas Pancakes

Who doesn’t love pancakes? They are even more special when they are CHRISTMAS Pancakes! My kids, even though they are older, still enjoy festive Holiday meals. In fact, they really love when they have a chance to help make it special. This is a recipe that kids from 2 up can have fun helping with-even if it’s just adding the decorations! With some imagination, a squeeze bottle and a few extra ingredients, you can easily whip up a batch for Christmas morning. You can even make the batter the night before and have it all ready to go! (Refrigerated batter will last a few days) Think Christmas Morning!

Yes, you can use the “only add water” mixes, but why use all those artificial ingredients when it’s so easy to make it from scratch? You probably have all the ingredients on hand- my recipe is based on one from Mark Bittman). Milk, flour, eggs, baking powder and salt are all you need. I added a bacon tree truck to the Christmas Trees and everyone loved them!

In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients together. In another container, mix wet ingredients together, including food coloring. Gently stir wet ingredients into the wet ingredients until mixed. (You can add extra food coloring if you need to get the right color)

Carefully pour the batter into a squeeze bottle. I use an old, well cleaned ketchup bottle - it has the perfect sized hole to squeeze the batter out of!

Preheat a griddle. I use an electric griddle, so I set it to 325.

On the preheated griddle, squeeze out the batter into a triangle shape and fill in any gaps right away.

THIS STEP IS IMPORTANT-

Normally, when you make pancake, you wait for bubbles and the edges to look dry. Because bubbles and browning will mess up the colors, watch carefully for the 1st bubble to form. Once they do, use a large metal spatula to quickly flip the pancake. Cook the other side until it stops steaming. (use your own judgement as to when it is done).

Once they are done, place on a plate and decorate or better yet, let the kids decorate as they wish! Eat up!